


Infinite

by PaisleyHearts



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Ever - Freeform, Feelings, M/M, Schmoop, good things, nothing bad ever happens to my children
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-11
Updated: 2016-01-11
Packaged: 2018-05-13 04:55:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5695600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PaisleyHearts/pseuds/PaisleyHearts
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dean doesn't kick Cas out because that's dumb</p>
            </blockquote>





	Infinite

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Renegaderena](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Renegaderena/gifts).



Breath rattles inside of Dean’s lungs, heavy and filled with words that he’s not sure he can get all out right now. Ezekiel claims that Cas can’t stay with them anymore, that there is no other option but to kick Cas out. So now, it’s up to Dean. Either his best friend or his brother and he cannot even fathom a choice for this decision. To him, it would be like picking between losing his sight or his hearing, both essential for his way of life.

“Dean?”

The hunter looks up to face his not-brother, shoulders thrown back and with all the bravado he is physically able to muster in a moment when he feels like the world I falling apart. “No.” Having an angel best friend has made Dean reckless over the years. He has learned to stand up to hurricanes when he is not more than a tiny human. Still, he stands strong against this stranger, like Ezekiel can't kill him with a simple thought or send him flying against one of the bunker walls.

“I do not believe you fully understand what I am asking of you. Castiel will cause much trouble if he remains here with us and I cannot put myself at risk. I will leave Sam and your brother will not heal.”

Dean takes a step forward. It’s odd, seeing as it’s his brother’s face he’s threatening. “Cas has been through enough. The bunker is warded, inside and out. The only reason you were able to get in here was because I let it happen. Don’t think that you’ll be able to leave just like that. Cas stays. End of discussion.”

“Dean, please.”

Dean doesn’t let Ezekiel finish. Instead, he stomps away, heart in his throat and stomach on the floor, a feeling of either guilt or regret pooling at his feet. He’s not even a hundred percent sure if his words are true, but he just has to hope that he’s as good as lying as he is at killing and maybe that will keep the wayward angel at bay, if even for a couple of days to figure this whole thing out.

Still, none of this is good and Dean knows that something is going to come back to bite him in the ass at some point. But he just wants everyone to be healthy and happy for just one night. Is that too much to ask?

He comes up to Cas sitting at the table inside of the war room, munching away at the gas station burrito like it is the best meal he has ever had.  
It probably is the best he’s had since the angels fell. That thought makes something ugly tug at Dean’s chest as he pulls a chair over right next to Cas. He makes a little nod of acknowledgement as he tries to swallow the previous bite.

“So you and April, huh?” His eyebrows lift suggestively as he tries to place his hands on the arm rests of the chair carefully, like he suddenly doesn’t know what to do with his body.

Cas, oblivious to how uncomfortable Dean is, continues to chew on the burrito that he found himself and nods. After a swallow, chased by a sip of beer, he puts the food down. “It’s just one of the many things I will learn to enjoy now that I am human.”

Dean chuckles, the action seeming too loud in the room and making his throat burn. “So what do you plan on doing now that you don’t have your wings?”

A flicker of something crosses Castiel’s eyes, but it’s gone before Dean is able to feel guilty over his slip up. “I was hoping I could stay here and maybe help out. I am of little use away from you and Sam. If you would allow me, that is.” The last words are said with sudden wariness, as if Cas has realized he has stepped over some invisible boundary and didn’t know he was testing the waters until the words were spoken out loud. It’s the tone, more than anything that causes Ezekiel’s threat to flicker through Dean’s mind.

Dean still isn’t one completely sure whether he can trust the angel despite what Cas has told him and there’s also the part where Cas knows nothing about the other angel hanging around. Still, the look on his friend’s face makes him want to try and make things all good in the bunker, even if for a little while. Zeke can’t escape if he wanted to, at least as far as the angel knows, and Cas needs a place to stay, at least for now. He’ll figure out the rest later.

“Of course you can stay man! Come on, there’s even a room here with your name on it.” Dean stands, Cas following close behind, the both in comfortable silence.

They walk down the hallway and stop near the middle, one door down away from where Dean is spending his nights. He opens the door and gestures inside, like it’s some grand place. “Well, this is it. There’s more rooms but they’re all exactly the same.” All of them have the same hard single mattresses and the one night stand and a single desk by the door.”

Cas walks in and places the soda down on the desk, taking in the whole space. After giving the room a once-over, he walks over to Dean, a smile of gratitude shining on his face. “Thank you Dean.” A moment comes over them, where Cas makes an aborted movement with his arms as if he wants to do something but isn’t sure how Dean will react to it.

 _How will it be like this?_ Dean thinks to himself. Where the two of them dance over something that quite isn’t, well… _that_. But it is definitely more than friendship. They are two bodies at the edge of a cliff, too scared to move for fear that the other will fall out of fright.

It’s a handful of awkward seconds of just standing there, with the weird electricity between them when Cas decides to go for it anyways. He wraps his arms around the hunter’s shoulders, and Dean stiffens for a several seconds.

After the initial shock, he relaxes into the embrace and actually wraps his arms around his best friend. The thing is that this moment is supposed to be more comfort for Cas than for Dean, but he feels like the world is a little lighter now. The world is a little less dark at the edges and there’s some titanium weight that has been shifted off his shoulders. Dean buries his face in the crook between Cas’ neck and shoulder and feels a feather light touch on the nape of his neck.

“I really appreciate this Dean.” It’s a whisper, right at his ear and he can feel the tickle of the air that escapes Cas’ lips. Dean pulls away, just a few inches, to say something. Anything really, to diffuse the weird tension that began to fall over them the second that Dean sat down at the table.

Words get stuck in Dean’s chest so the two just end up staring at each other for one second too long. From one moment to the next, like taking another breath when you’re reading or blinking while you walk, they’re kissing, soft and tentative. Like the whole thing could fall apart at any second. Like this isn’t significant and it is something that they have done every day for as long as memory lasts. Dean pulls away first, only barely, his hands bracketing Cas’ face and the angel’s eyes are still closed. Dean can’t help but smile.

He had imagined this a million different ways in a million different situations. But never this. Never as simple as one good gesture to a friend in the middle of hell not for it to be as simple as taking a breath amongst thousands. There was even one absurd scenario that Dean had come up with, where the two of them are bloody and beaten, at the edge of time, and it just happens. In the middle of the world falling apart. But this? It was never meant to be this simple.

“You’re welcome buddy.” The sentiment would fall empty on anyone else’s ears, especially coupled with such a light term like _buddy._ But Castiel knows exactly what Dean means, even if his true emotions cannot be voiced out loud in a moment as vulnerable and tender as this.

Cas steps into his room and looks back at Dean in silent invitation. Dean knows that there is a conversation to have. The heavy _thunk_ of his heart tells him so. Somewhere deep inside, probably the same place he keeps memories of his mother singing and the small tendril’s of Cas’ grace from their first meeting, Dean knows that this conversation is one that could open the doors to something so good. He’s not afraid. Not really.


End file.
